This is an insane theory. It should not be cited as credible. There is no way that Matthew Weiner ever intended any of this, but if you spend way too much time obsessing over Mad Men, your brain develops a tendency to create illusory connections, which often make for fun theories.

One of crackpot theories has to do with Jimi Hendrix.

On this week’s episode of Mad Men, “Field Trip,” a song called “6 was 9” by Jimi Hendrix played over the end credits. It’s a great song, but thematically, the lyrics don’t suggest any echoes of what’s going on in Don Draper’s storyline. However, Jimi Hendrix was a big believer in numerology, and the numbers six and, particularly, 9 were of huge significance to him.

In fact, in The Inner World of Jimi Hendrix, written by a friend of Hendrix’s, Monika, Hendrix apparently revealed that their was hidden cosmic meaning to the two numbers in that song. They are very powerful numbers, he said (he also said some things about aliens, spacecrafts, and a power struggle with evil on Earth, because Jimi Hendrix smoked a shitton of weed).

Hendrix was such a big believer of the number nine that, on the day of his death, he took 9 painkillers, believing that those nine pills would tell him if she should live or if he should die (spoiler alert: They told him he should die). The woman in his apartment waited six hours after she discovered Hendrix before calling an ambulance.

But wait, there’s more: Jimi’s Life Path number was 9. His birthdate was 11/27/1942. Add those numbers up, and you get 27, which is how old Hendrix was when he died. He died on the 18th day of the 9th month of the year.

Interesting?

But what about Don Draper? There are 9 letters in his name. The title of this week’s episode, which aired on the 27th, was “Field Trip,” which has nine letters. Last year, he was reading Inferno, in which Virgil guides Dante through the NINE circles of Hell. He’s moving into the office of Lane Pryce, who had nine letters in his name.

What time is it on Don’s watch? NINE.

Finally, what year is it on Mad Men during its final season? 1969. You think that’s a coincidence? THERE ARE NO COINCIDENCES ON MAD MEN.

And if all those connections haven’t fully crystalized in your brain in such a way as to signal the arrival of something terrible, listen to this for (exactly) nine minutes.

Did I just blow your mind? No? Go back and smoke some more weed and try again.

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Comments Are Welcome, Bigots and Trolls Are Not

Tony Maxwell

The Hendrix song is actually called "IF 6 Were 9." Had to stop reading after that.

John G.

Perhaps off topic, but we know that Ronald D Moore loves Hendrix, and he decided to use the Hendrix version of All Along the Watchtower as some kind of cosmic song that gets reproduced across multiple universes.

The cylon we first get introduced to is number 6, and then here's this from wikipedia:

Since her debut in the mini-series, a leitmotif has been used in scenes featuring Tricia Helfer as Six. This simple 9-note motif was composed by Richard Gibbs. The 9/8 figure is divided unevenly into a group of 3 notes, followed by 3 groups of 2. It is almost always performed on a gamelan, and also plays over the introduction to each episode of the series. On the published series soundtrack, the melody is listed as The Sense of Six.

Jifaner

The audio weirdly cut out while I was watching right when it his the credits. I thought maybe it was a silent credit roll but then I got maybe 10 seconds of the song at the end. Glad to know what I missed, heh.